Betrayal

The gnome’s words are almost enough to shock you to speech. There are things going on here that you need answers to, and try as you might you aren’t really the type to keep everything in! At the same time your thoughts are going in panicked circles wondering what they have done to your magic. They shouldn’t be able to do anything of course, it took centuries of study to perfect runic magic, and that was by the finest royal scholars of the academy. It’s effects might be defeated or dulled.. but the runes themselves should be unassailable. Untouchable by these crude creatures in any case.

There is a sure way to find out of course.. Gritting your teeth you draw on your magic, intent on turning that blasted mirror to shards to get your point across. You feel the familiar tingle.. and then to your horror it fades. You watch disbelievingly as the symbols around one half of the circle light up in a dull red glow for a few seconds, then slowly fade to nothing.

Grimmauld also watches from close and nods in satisfaction. Marissa looks more than a little relieved and takes her hand from the hilt of her sword. The gnome turns to her with a wry smile.

“You see? Not a problem”

Your breath hisses from you between your set teeth, frustration and fear warring within. You can’t help yourself.

“What in the name of the burned goddess have you.. children.. done to me?!” You demand.

For the first time the passive face of the gnome twists in anger at your words.

“We have returned you to the level of mere mortal I’m afraid mistress ELF! I’m so sorry if that is an inconvenience for you. The rest of us have learned to LIVE with it!”

He trembles a moment, then draws a deep breath, visibly getting hold of himself and wiping away a drop of spittle caused by his rant.

“I’m sorry my dear.. I’m afraid the number of missives I’ve read from your beloved queen, where she uses that term for the _lesser _races, have made me somewhat.. sensitive.”

The human pats him on the shoulder as he retreats for the moment, and you are quite shocked at the emotional reaction you provoked. At the anger within yourself which led to it too. You feel.. out of control somehow and the loss of your magic only amplifies that. But what is he talking about.. what dealings does the Queen of the elves have with gnomes?

“I.. I don’t understand. Lesser races? Missives? We only found out about your alliance weeks ago. And now you are making war on us.”

Marissa looks at you with a measure of pity in her eyes.. though not much shows on the hard face.

“Jennara I could show you a pile of papers as tall as me sent from your Queen demanding our submission. The Alliance may only have come to light recently but believe me the queen has pushed us into this over the course of decades. Since long before I was born. Every year you elves eat up a little more territory, buy up more goods from the dark continent, make things just a little bit harder for everyone else. Trying just a bit at a time to get everything under her thumb. The goblins, the trolls.. the dwarves are all but gone now, or hiding underground somewhere. The orcs are as close to wiped out as can be whilst still having an army. But then fighting is life for them. They won’t last much longer. It goes way back.. the dark elves, the centaur.. they’ve all fallen. Enslaved or destroyed under the guise of keeping the elves safe. And so it has come to this.. kill or be killed. She knew we’d be trouble, especially if we joined forces.. and so she needed new weapons to fight. Weapons like.. you.”